Todays Healthy Recipe.

jacked-up red rice & beans
ricenbeans

Since returning home from Vietnam I have been on a mega rice kick – makes sense considering we were eating some form (if not multiple) of rice at every meal. As part of my own personal goal system, I told myself sternly at the beginning of spring that I would burn through some of the rice and dried pulses in my pantry before the summer heat arrives. This of course, plays perfectly into my ongoing rice craving.

My belly was very happy to be eating so much rice while in Vietnam – this was sort of surprising to me because, for the most part, my system doesn’t overly love grains. I do, but my guts? Not so much.

ricenbeans

In fact, my system was so on point while we were over there that I had fully decided to eat exclusively Vietnamese style dishes once we got home. Life hasn’t played out quite that way, but I have been using an over-abundance of herbs, lime juice and chilies with essentially every meal.

Lending inspiration from the typical red beans + rice, adding a bit of extra herbage, lime and spice (thank you, Vietnam) – I give you a Jacked Up Red Rice + Beans. Simple and quick enough for weeknights, yet tasty and impressive enough for company. Sounds like a no brainer, yes? Yes!

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This flavor bomb is nicely balanced + fully loaded.

The sauce is a very simple mix of fresh green herbs, bumpin’ jalapeno, quality olive oil and a good amount of lime juice. Super simple ingredients that pop and bang in your mouth (yeah, I just said that!).

A nice heap of crunchy baked protein packed chickpeas, warm soft red rice and massaged kale – high fiber, naturally wheat free, win win. Top it off with some raw spring onion, onions are an incredible prebiotic (gotta feed those belly bugs) and some cubed avocado. The purpose to the avo in this bowl is fat, healthy green skin-beautifying fat. If you’re not super into avocado (who are you?!) that’s okay, the body gets an added boost of absorption when healthy fats are added into a meal, but lucky for you there is that quality olive oil I mentioned above.

Give it a go, you won’t regret it!

ricenbeans

Jacked Up Red Rice & Beans

Serves: 2

Ingredients
1.5 Cups Cooked Red Rice
8-10 Stalks of Kale
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
1 Teaspoon Flax Oil
2 Heirloom Tomatoes
1 Avocado
1 Can Chickpeas
2 Tablespoons Coconut Oil
1 Teaspoon Hot Smoked Paprika
1 Teaspoon Whole Cumin Seeds
Pinch of Salt
1 Spring Onion
For the Jacked Sauce:
1 Large Jalapeno
1 Clove of Garlic
1 Bunch Cilantro (about 1.5 cups chopped)
½ Bunch Curly Parsley
Juice of 1 Large Lime
⅓ Cup Quality Cold-Pressed Olive Oil
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 400
Drain the chickpeas, roughly chop the kale, slice the tomatoes and spring onion – set aside
In an oven-proof dish dump the chickpeas, coconut oil, paprika, cumin and salt – shake to cover the chickpeas and then roast in the oven for 15 minutes
While the chickpeas are roasting, wash and roughly chop the jalapeno, cilantro and parsley, peel the garlic and juice the lime – add to a blender along with the olive oil and blitz until desired smoothness
Once the 15 minutes is up on the chickpeas, turn the oven to broil and crisp for another 5-10 minutes. Check frequently. Once crisped enough to your liking, remove from the oven
Massage the kale in a large bowl with the flax oil and lemon juice until it has softened
Split the rice between two bowls, add the massaged kale beside each scoop of rice
Arrange the tomato slices, spoon in some of the crispy chickpeas
Top with cubed avocado, spring onion and Jacked Up Sauce.